Need for Speed (2009 film)
Need for Speed (alternatively known as Need for Speed 4) is a 2009 American action film directed by Rob Cohen and written by Tim Hill with Stephen Hillenburg, and Kent Osborne. It is the fourth installment of the ''Need for Speed'' film franchise, which is based on the video game series of the same name by Electronic Arts. The film stars Tom Kenny, Bill Faggerbarke, Bruce Willis, Pete L. J. Dickson, Chad Michael Murray, Charity Shea, Matt Schulze, Roger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, and Mr. Lawrence. The film serves as a connection from the first film into a present-day setting, with main members of the original cast reprising their roles. The film is interquel set between the second installment and third installment. Originally released on March 13, 2009, the film received positive reviews upon release, and was a box office success grossing $365 million worldwide. It was followed by Need for Speed: Underground in 2011. Plot Five years after the first film, Luke Maruso and his new crew, consisting of his girlfriend Tess Ortega, Malo Neko, Kira Devon, and Ciara Clay, are hijacking tankers in Pakistan. Luke suspects that the police are on their trail, forcing the crew to disband and go their separate ways, with Kira deciding to go to Honolulu. Realizing that he must leave, Luke runs, leaving Tess behind to protect her from harm. Three months later, Luke is now residing in Rio de Janeiro. He gets a call from his daughter, who tells him that Tess has been murdered. Dominic heads back to Los Angeles to attend her funeral and examine the crash and finds traces of nitromethane on the ground. SpongeBob SquarePants is dreaming about managing the Krusty Krab restaurant and saving the day during a crisis. He wakes up and cheerfully prepares for the opening ceremony for The Krusty Krab 3, expecting his boss Mr. Krabs' cousin Cody to promote him to manager of the new restaurant. However, Cody instead names Squidward Tentacles manager, believing SpongeBob is too immature to handle the role, much to Mr. Krabs and the other's dismay. Meanwhile, Mr. Krabs' business rival Plankton escapes prison and contacts crime boss Harris "King" Joel. King helps Plankton steal Prince Mark Middleton and Tara' baby newly born baby daughter Vanessa, leaving false evidence to frame Cody for the crime, and sends the new born to Mexico. The next morning, The Queen of England barges into the Krusty Krab 3 and threatens Cody for his alleged thievery. SpongeBob later arrives and chastises Cody under the influence of an ice cream headache, but seeing his boss's nephew's life is at risk, he promises Prince Mark and Tara that he will retrieve their child. The Queen sentences Cody to life in prison and orders SpongeBob to return with Prince and Tara's daughter in ten days for him to spare Cody's life. SpongeBob and Patrick recruit Sandy, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward for the journey. SpongeBob and Patrick favourite superheroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy join the team, and decided to find Luke to help them. F.B.I. agent Dodger Gordon is trying to track down a lead on the crime. His search leads him to Joel Maxx, and he tracks him down using an illegal modification record on his car. Luke arrives at Maxx's apartment first and hangs him out of the window by his ankles before Dodger arrives. Dodger saves Maxx and Maxx becomes the F.B.I.'s new informant. Maxx gets Dodger into a street race. Dodger selects a modified 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport from the impound lot. Dodger's brother Jake enters the race with a modified 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34. Luke races his modified 1970s Hot Rod. Kenna Hayes, the liaison for Joel, reveals that the winner will become the last driver for a Worldwide Grand Prix. SpongeBob and Luke tie for first place while Brian comes in second by bumping Dodger's car while it is in nitro, making him lose control. Despite losing, Brian is accepted onto the team by Luke's request. Dodger uses his power as an F.B.I. agent to arrest another driver, Duncan North, and takes his place on the team. Bugs Bunny wins the first race in Los Angeles, California. Bugs shows interest in SpongeBob and Luke's team and offers a piece between their team, which SpongeBob refuses. Luke finds out Dodger was the last person to contact Tess, which results in Luke attacking Dodger until Dodger explains that Tess was working undercover, tracking down Joel in exchange for clearing Luke's record. SpongeBob shockingly discovers that Cherie was behind the abduction of Baby Vanessa and Plankton was behind the Grand Prix. He soon realizes that both Joel and Plankton are working together. Cast *Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail and the Narrator *Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star, SpongeBob's best friend and neighbor * Bruce Willis as Luke Maruso * Pete L. J. Dickson as Jake Gordon * Chad Michael Murray as Dodger Gordon * Charity Shea as Sonya Maruso *Clancy Brown as Mr. Eugene Krabs, SpongeBob and Squidward's boss *Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob's co-worker and neighbor *Mr. Lawrence as Plankton, Mr. Krabs' arch-rival and Karen's husband *Jill Talley as Karen, Plankton's computer wife *Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks, SpongeBob's Texas squirrel friend *Ernest Borgnine as Mermaid Man *Tim Conway as Barnacle Boy Production Development The film was announced in June 2007. Rob Cohen, who is known for directing The Fast and the Furious (2001), was hired to direct. Cohen never exprssed intered in working on a video game based film before. Tom Kenny, Bill Faggerbarke, Bruce Willis, Pete L. J. Dickson, Chad Michael Murray, and the rest of the cast of the original film all signed on to reprise their roles. To prepare for his role, Dickson took driving lessons in November 2007 after his 13th birthday. Filming and Vehicle designs Rob Cohen directed the live-action segments of the film. Filming began in April 2008. The movie cars were built in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. Around 240 cars were built for the film. Dickson's character, Jake Gordon, drove a Nissan Skyline GTR, resembled the one used in 2 Fast 2 Furious, although the color design was different as it was green mixed with blue. Animation Andrew Overtoom, supervising director, Alan Smart, and Tom Yasumi served as the film's animation directors while Luke Brookshier and Nate Cash handled the storyboard direction. It was a part of the SpongeBob series' tenth anniversary celebration. The title sequence of SpongeBob for the film was made exclusively for the SpongeBob series' tenth anniversary. It was animated in stop motion animation, with Cee Lo Green performing the theme. Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh and Chris Finnegan of Screen Novelties animated its opening titles. Finnegan claimed that the crew were "thrilled" to do the title sequence because "the original title sequence is so recognizable and everyone seen it over and over and it's so great in its own way."Executive producer and the episode's writer Paul Tibbitt said "We don't just want to redraw it original title sequence, we want it to be something special and different... So we thought we would do it in three dimensions..." Nickelodeon animation president Brown Johnson lauded the new title sequence and said it is "SO great!" Some traditional animation on scraps of brown paper are intermixed into the stop motion. Tibbitt said that the "biggest surprise" for him in the new title sequence was "the treatment of Painty the Pirate in the beginning" as seen in a fortune teller machine. Mark Caballero, one of its animators, explained "our idea was like our goal is like the more disturbing, the better because I don't think there is a fortune telling machine out there that doesn't disturb when you see it. Tibbitt said "it was a great idea... I was just expecting maybe a 3D version of the painting but we got something totally different and it's very cool." Music *''Main articles: Need for Speed (soundtrack) and Need for Speed (Original Motion Picture Score)'' The score to Need for Speed was composed by Hans Zimmer. Zimmer recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox. The score album was released on CD by Varèse Sarabande Records with over 78 minutes worth of music. The official soundtrack was released on February 28, 2009 on Star Trak. Release The film was originally set to release on May 22, 2009, but moved it up to March 13, 2009 instead. It was the first motion-enhanced theatrical film to feature D-BOX motion feedback technology in selected theatres. Home video Need for Speed was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 18, 2009. As of July 29, 2011 the DVD has sold 3,324,117 copies generating $53,879,547 in sales revenue for a combined total of $417,043,812 including worldwide movie ticket sales. It was re-released in Australia on Blu-ray including a digital copy and re-titled Need for Speed 4 on March 30, 2011. Reception Box office On its first day of release, the movie grossed $20.5 million, and peaked at the No. 1 spot of the weekend box office with $60,840,400 in 3,153 theatres."Daily Box Office for Friday, 13 March 2009". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. The film had the seventh-biggest opening weekend of 2009 and was double what most industry observers expected. It also held the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a Spring release and of any car-oriented film, the record having been previously held by Cars, which grossed $60.1 million, until Fast & Furious later broke both records in the next month. Need for Speed also held the record for the highest opening weekend in March, until Alice in Wonderland claimed the record in the next year. Its worldwide gross on its opening weekend stands at $91.5 million with $6.1 million coming from the UK, $7.5 million from Russia, $5 million in France and $2 million from Germany. The film grossed over $155,016,415 in North America (more than Honolulu Underworld earned in it's entire domestic box office run), and $210,125,533 in other territories for a worldwide gross of $365,139,948 (making it the fourth most successful film in the franchise behind Need for Speed: Underground 2, Need for Speed: Carbon and Need for Speed: Underground). It is the ninth highest-grossing film in the car genre, behind Furious 8, Need for Speed: Underground 2, Fast & Furious 7, Need for Speed: Carbon,'' Fast Six'', Need for Speed: Underground, Cars, and Fast & Furious. It is the sixth highest film of 2009 to gross $300 million worldwide behind Star Trek, Monsters vs. Aliens, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, and Fast & Furious. Reviews Need for Speed received generally mixed to positive reviews from professional critics. The film is rated at 66% based on 173 reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website and 58 on Metacriticbased on 27 reviews. Roger Ebert, who gave negative reviews to the previous films, gave an favorable review of the film, writing, "I've had many doubts about the Need for Speed series, but with the fourth film, it brings out more than what fans could bargain for. And that's a good thing because Need for Speed 4 delivers the high octane speed than The Fast and the Furious". Awards The film was nominated for several awards in 2009–10. Sequel References Category:Need for Speed Category:Film series